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The #BornAndMade campaign is celebrating women. And it's fantastic.

This is the message we should be hearing.

Maybe you've seen pics of some of your friends' beautiful faces with writing over them like this in your social media feed the past few days:


Photo by #BornAndMade, used with permission.

So far, over 50,000 people have made pics like those above and there's a great reason why.

Being a woman isn't always easy. (Stick with me here.)

We're constantly getting messages, both subtle and quite overt, telling us who to be: how to dress, how to do our hair, what size we should be, what tone of voice we should use when we speak, and even what words we should choose.

But you know what we should actually be? Ourselves! Fully, boldly, and proudly ourselves.

That's why Lisa Price, founder of hair and skin-care company Carol's Daughter, and Emily Greener, co-founder of the nonprofit I Am That Girl, teamed up to create the #BornAndMade campaign.

They're showing us who to be in the best way possible by helping us reflect on who we already are and encouraging us to share that with the world.

The purpose of the #BornAndMade campaign is quite simple: to encourage girls and women to be who they were born and made to be.

"I want every woman and girl to know she has worth, she is not insignificant in this world. She just needs to understand who she is," Price told me.

"I want every woman and girl to know she has worth, she is not insignificant in this world. She just needs to understand who she is."

"That means knowing who you were born and made to be, but then determining where you want to take that knowledge. It can empower you in unexpected ways."

It's a great campaign for girls and women alike. Just visit the site, upload a photo, fill in the blanks, and share.

Even my daughter made one:

My husband's and my amazing daughter, who is so proud of who she is.

I love campaigns like this. As a mom, I want to raise my daughter to be herself — and to remain proud of who she is, in spite of the messaging that often plants seeds of self-doubt. As Greener told me, "Beauty is the goodness inside you that comes out of you and impacts the world, starting with your own world."

"I want girls out there to celebrate every fiber that makes them unique, to recognize that they can be who they were born and made to be, not who they're supposed to be," Price added.

Let's drown out the negatives with confidence and pride in ourselves.

This campaign is taking off, with women sharing their #BornAndMade photos all over Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram:




When it comes to beauty, we all have it. "Beauty is inherent in every single person. It cannot be added or taken away. It shines from within us and touches every person we meet," Price said.

"Part of what I love about this campaign is that the words are over what we would normally perceive to be our beauty. Our face, eyes, smile, hair. The words are our power and the representation of the beauty that is shining through them."

As for the negative messages we get all the time, Greener has some great advice: "Surround yourself with a community that reminds you who you are (and who you're capable of being) every single day, who make it safe for you to say the things that are true for you in any given moment, and who support you in all of the moments along your own personal journey — the good, the bad, the ugly, and the gorgeous."

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